DMZ, Korea

Factual Questions
1

Hello everyone, I’m new to the message boards (been reading the column online sporadically for quite some time though). Here’s my question about the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) between North and South Korea:

Part 1. According to this Wikipedia article, troops from both sides are allowed to patrol within the DMZ as long as they stay on their own side of the line (the Military Demarcation Line, that is). This matches what I’ve heard before. I also seem to recall hearing, though, that the DMZ is chock full of land mines. How do the patrolling troops avoid stepping on mines? Or do they? Do they ever blow themselves up by accident on one of their own mines?

Part 2. The article also mentions this interesting information:

Human soldiers might just be sticking to a detailed map of where all their own mines are, but how do the animals do it? Is the DMZ actually full of blown-up animal parts?

2

Surely the same or similar links have answered the question – some may die, and others are light-weight enough to not set off the mines.

3

Poster in Korea here.

There are parts of the DMZ that aren’t strewn with land mines, a couple of roads and such. The DMZ is a major tourist attraction, especially near Seoul. There are even a couple of locations where you can dip your foot into forbidden territory, so you can straight-facedly claim you’ve
“been” to North Korea (and tour packages via Beijing that actually bring you to Pyongyang).

You can’t just walk from SK to NK without encountering guards or mines, but seldom will you encounter both.

4

Yeah, although both sides are free to patrol, in reality much of the DMZ remains untouched since the war. If you read World Without Us there’s a section about how the DMZ is a good example of what would happen to the earth if humanity were every to die out (barring some disaster that would wipe out all other life as well).

5

A bit of trivia on the topic of the DMZ, there is a United Nations Command military post near the border called Camp Bonifas, which features what is called “The Most Dangerous Golf Course In The World.” A one-hole, Par-3 course. If you knock a ball into the rough, it is strongly recommended that you just write it off rather than risk tripping a landmine or getting shot by a sentry.

Golfers. Crazy and strange people.

6

landmines are made to explode when humans come in contact with it

rabbits or birds are too small to make it detonate.

7

Are there any deer?

On a tangential note: On a show about some guys visiting the DMZ, they were told not to point at anything across the border. Why is this?

8

From a distance, pointing at something with outstretched arm & pointing at something with a rifle look a lot alike. The folks on the other side might decide to pre-empt what looks like you preparing to shoot one of their buddies.

The NK side isn’t much concerned about creating small scale provocations like unneccessarily shooting a tourist.

9

If one takes a tour of the DMZ, which is easily booked in downtown Seoul, there is an extensive briefing on what not to do. Virtually all of it boils down to the fact that visitors are under nearly constant surveillance by the Norks, and their claimed interest in using anything out of the ordinary as propaganda. When I first visited, visitors were prohibited from wearing clothing that was not neat and tidy (i.e., a photo of someone with ripped jeans and t-shirt could be used as propaganda of the poverty and exploitation of the capitalists, or some such).

I don’t specifically remember any warnings not to point, but I would guess it would be related to the possibility of a Nork propaganda photo: “Western tourists are amazed by the obvious growth and development of the modern Juche ideology!”

I somewhat doubt that the reason is related to an arm looking life a rifle. At most of the spots where visitors stop along the DMZ, the North Koreans are as close as 20 feet (at the Panmunjom Joint Security Area) or around 100 yards where the ax murder took place. And believe me, they are equipped with large binocs – at my last visit a few years ago, a North Korean officer was looking at me with HUGE binoculars from no more than 10 yards away. I am not kidding, he could probably tell that one of my front teeth is slightly crooked. I took a picture of him.

10

I’vwe been to the DMZ about a dozen or so times, both as a reporter and as a tourist, and the one thing that stands out, other than the eerie silence, is the lushness of the land. It truly is a paradise from a conservationist standpoint.

According to this study, “after almost 50 years of land mines, any animal heavy enough to set off a land mine no longer lives in the DMZ.”

There are roughly a million of landmines in that swath of land, ad I think it would have cleaned out the deer and cattle pretty quickly.